Live Oak

[Chorus]

There's a man who walks beside me; he is who I used to be

And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me

And I wonder who she's pinin' for on nights I'm not around

Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down?

[Verse 1]

I was rougher than the timber shippin' out of Fond du Lac

When I headed south at seventeen, the sheriff on my back

I'd never held a lover in my arms or in my gaze

So I found another victim every couple days

[Verse 2]

But the night I fell in love with her, I made my weakness known

Through the fighters and the farmers diggin' dusty fields alone

The jealous innuendos of the lonely-hearted men

Let me know what kind of country I was sleeping in

[Verse 3]

Well, you couldn't stay a loner on the plains before the war

When my neighbors took to slightin' me, I had to ask what for

Rumors of my wickedness had reached our little town

Soon she'd heard about the boys I used to hang around

[Verse 4]

We'd robbed a Great Lakes freighter, killed a couple men aboard

When I told her, her eyes flickered like the sharp steel of a sword

All the things that she'd suspected, I'd expected her to fear

Was the truth that drew her to me when I landed here

[Chorus]

There's a man who walks beside me; he is who I used to be

And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me

And I wonder who she's pinin' for on nights I'm not around

Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down?

[Verse 5]

Well, I carved her cross from live oak and her box from shortleaf pine

And buried her so deep, she touched the water table line

I picked up what I needed, and I headed south again

To myself I wondered, would I ever find another friend?

[Outro]

There's a man who walks beside her; he is who I used to be

And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me